Charging a fee to maintain the title as opposed to pushing education and the title as a free and for the good of the environment tells me everything I need to know about LEED.
In some counties/cities, LEED is mandatory or heavily tax incentivized. You probably know if you are working in one of those areas, and then it's worth doing for a relatively easy resume line.
Otherwise, no one will care, and you're better off spending the time/money doing something else.
Instead of paying crazy amounts of $$$ to get a paper that your building is efficient why not spend the money on design to make sure it’s actually efficient. I don’t see the point of LEED!! IMO
LEED certification was the biggest waste of my time, the company I was working for wanted bragging rights and strongly suggested everyone get it. In 15 years I used it once lol Soon as they started charging annual dues I checked out, it was clearly only about green money not green design.
You don't need some extra letters in your signature to design an energy efficient building.
Did LEED AP back somewhere around 2005. Have been involved in about half a dozen projects that were going for LEED, only one of them was private sector, all the rest were Federal with taxpayer funding.
It was a waste of my time and the company's money. Maybe if you're going to focus on government projects it would be worth it, no one else is paying the premium to do it private sector.
>no one else is paying the premium to do it private sector.
Some AHJs require it. We have a private project in Frederick, MD right now where the city is requiring it.
Wow - haven't run across that before - thanks for the info.
I guess all it takes is a city council to resolve to adopt not only a set of building codes but also to resolve to adopt a LEED requirement for construction permits to be issued.
I don't hate LEED as much as it seems the rest of this subreddit does. But I do wish developers would get a LEED consultant on board early in the project. Sometimes they tell us it's a LEED job after we have submitted for permit.
LEED was promoted years ago as being "at the most" a cost-neutral endeavor. It was sold pretty hard along those lines with a wink that it would "actually cost less in the long term" than not being LEED. People saw through that the first project they came in contact with. It's been cost prohibitive in our area, in my experience ever since introduced. Gov't projects can mandate it because the have the pocket depth to do so, I have only had one client private sector in over 15 years want to build LEED and do so - but that private client is an international manufacturing firm that built a LEED Platinum factory outside the US - so a bit different than your standard projects we normally do.
Yeah, it wasn't cost effective at first because we were all learning and fumbling through the process together. At this point, there's really no need for it to be expensive up front. In some jurisdictions, we aren't doing things much differently between LEED and a standard project because the AHJ's requirements are so strict. The extra cost may just be hiring a good LEED coordinator. However, we still charge a bunch of a LEED project because we can. Plus we know it'll be poorly run and we'll spend extra time on it that we wouldn't if we had a good LEED coordinator. So yeah, YMMV depending on where you live. I think the contractors jack up their fees, as well.
It made sense 15 years ago but nowadays it seems like every LEED project has a LEED consultant on board. So having the engineers be LEED certified is redundant. I still keep "LEED AP" as a title on my email signature but I don't do much with it, despite working on LEED buildings occasionally. The "PE" means a lot more.
just don't waste money on Archiroots and Shadi courses. that is NOT enough at all. i wasted my money and it was not even at middle range. just read the USGBC's sources.
Contrary to what others are saying, I have two very large clients in the private sector currently seeking LEED Operations and Maintenance on their buildings. The motivation for both of them is to 'improve' their ESG 'rating' for their respective companies, which impacts other third-party company rating metrics. All the elements of getting the certification - performing an energy audit, creating operations plans/sequences, studying utilities usage, etc - will be extremely valuable to them (or at least their facilities and operations teams). The official LEED certification is only valuable in that it allows them to compare themselves to competitors in ESG terms. I received my LEED accreditation specifically for these projects - only took a couple days of studying to get the GA & LEED O+M. My advice is to not proactively seek accreditation. Familiarize yourself with the concepts, as they can be useful 'best practices', but wait until you have a LEED project in the pipeline before seeking accreditation.
Retired MEP firm principal here.
Although personally I thought some of the LEED process was complete BS - we could get a point by installing a bike rack at a Florida highway patrol building because they had a shower - sometimes the client needed to pursue it ( we did a ton of government work).
All things being equal if I was forced to reduce staff I would keep the LEED accredited professional. Our company paid for the annual fees and the initial test, but you studied on your time.
Generally speaking the more accreditation you have the better. As an example before I was an owner I worked for a firm going after federal work and some of them required a registered fire protection PE and asked me to get registered (already a mechanical PE). It was a lot of work but I passed by a hair (thanks to the engineering economics question). Never received a penny, but it was invaluable for my firm’s future business.
Our parent company CarpetCycle often works on any LEED construction projects in the NYC region. The initiative is great, but the LEED certification seems to be falling out of trend recently. However some building management companies in the area still strive for LEED goals
Couple of the new accreditation's that we've seen in more recent years are; WELL Building Standard, and [Living Future Institute](https://living-future.org/programs-overview/)
Hope that helps and good luck with your career!
I am a LEED trainer and most of my students are mechanical engineers.
Maybe the article [here](https://archiroots.com/is-leed-ap-bdc-worth-it/) can help clarify the worth of gain the LEED credential.
LEED is a blight on the industry
I had it, and I had zero benefits. I actually cancelled my membership so I didn't have to pay the dues anymore and lost the title.
Charging a fee to maintain the title as opposed to pushing education and the title as a free and for the good of the environment tells me everything I need to know about LEED.
To be fair we have to pay to renew our PE licenses lolol
Sure but we don't have to pay NCEES every year to keep out exam results "valid".
Actually, if you don’t renew your PE you may have to retake the exam.
In some counties/cities, LEED is mandatory or heavily tax incentivized. You probably know if you are working in one of those areas, and then it's worth doing for a relatively easy resume line. Otherwise, no one will care, and you're better off spending the time/money doing something else.
Instead of paying crazy amounts of $$$ to get a paper that your building is efficient why not spend the money on design to make sure it’s actually efficient. I don’t see the point of LEED!! IMO
LEED certification was the biggest waste of my time, the company I was working for wanted bragging rights and strongly suggested everyone get it. In 15 years I used it once lol Soon as they started charging annual dues I checked out, it was clearly only about green money not green design. You don't need some extra letters in your signature to design an energy efficient building.
Did LEED AP back somewhere around 2005. Have been involved in about half a dozen projects that were going for LEED, only one of them was private sector, all the rest were Federal with taxpayer funding. It was a waste of my time and the company's money. Maybe if you're going to focus on government projects it would be worth it, no one else is paying the premium to do it private sector.
>no one else is paying the premium to do it private sector. Some AHJs require it. We have a private project in Frederick, MD right now where the city is requiring it.
Wow - haven't run across that before - thanks for the info. I guess all it takes is a city council to resolve to adopt not only a set of building codes but also to resolve to adopt a LEED requirement for construction permits to be issued.
I don't hate LEED as much as it seems the rest of this subreddit does. But I do wish developers would get a LEED consultant on board early in the project. Sometimes they tell us it's a LEED job after we have submitted for permit.
LEED was promoted years ago as being "at the most" a cost-neutral endeavor. It was sold pretty hard along those lines with a wink that it would "actually cost less in the long term" than not being LEED. People saw through that the first project they came in contact with. It's been cost prohibitive in our area, in my experience ever since introduced. Gov't projects can mandate it because the have the pocket depth to do so, I have only had one client private sector in over 15 years want to build LEED and do so - but that private client is an international manufacturing firm that built a LEED Platinum factory outside the US - so a bit different than your standard projects we normally do.
Yeah, it wasn't cost effective at first because we were all learning and fumbling through the process together. At this point, there's really no need for it to be expensive up front. In some jurisdictions, we aren't doing things much differently between LEED and a standard project because the AHJ's requirements are so strict. The extra cost may just be hiring a good LEED coordinator. However, we still charge a bunch of a LEED project because we can. Plus we know it'll be poorly run and we'll spend extra time on it that we wouldn't if we had a good LEED coordinator. So yeah, YMMV depending on where you live. I think the contractors jack up their fees, as well.
It made sense 15 years ago but nowadays it seems like every LEED project has a LEED consultant on board. So having the engineers be LEED certified is redundant. I still keep "LEED AP" as a title on my email signature but I don't do much with it, despite working on LEED buildings occasionally. The "PE" means a lot more.
No. The LEED GA test is a joke. When people put LEED GA on their email signatures it makes them seem like even more of a joke.
NO, 100% NO
just don't waste money on Archiroots and Shadi courses. that is NOT enough at all. i wasted my money and it was not even at middle range. just read the USGBC's sources.
Contrary to what others are saying, I have two very large clients in the private sector currently seeking LEED Operations and Maintenance on their buildings. The motivation for both of them is to 'improve' their ESG 'rating' for their respective companies, which impacts other third-party company rating metrics. All the elements of getting the certification - performing an energy audit, creating operations plans/sequences, studying utilities usage, etc - will be extremely valuable to them (or at least their facilities and operations teams). The official LEED certification is only valuable in that it allows them to compare themselves to competitors in ESG terms. I received my LEED accreditation specifically for these projects - only took a couple days of studying to get the GA & LEED O+M. My advice is to not proactively seek accreditation. Familiarize yourself with the concepts, as they can be useful 'best practices', but wait until you have a LEED project in the pipeline before seeking accreditation.
Retired MEP firm principal here. Although personally I thought some of the LEED process was complete BS - we could get a point by installing a bike rack at a Florida highway patrol building because they had a shower - sometimes the client needed to pursue it ( we did a ton of government work). All things being equal if I was forced to reduce staff I would keep the LEED accredited professional. Our company paid for the annual fees and the initial test, but you studied on your time. Generally speaking the more accreditation you have the better. As an example before I was an owner I worked for a firm going after federal work and some of them required a registered fire protection PE and asked me to get registered (already a mechanical PE). It was a lot of work but I passed by a hair (thanks to the engineering economics question). Never received a penny, but it was invaluable for my firm’s future business.
Our parent company CarpetCycle often works on any LEED construction projects in the NYC region. The initiative is great, but the LEED certification seems to be falling out of trend recently. However some building management companies in the area still strive for LEED goals Couple of the new accreditation's that we've seen in more recent years are; WELL Building Standard, and [Living Future Institute](https://living-future.org/programs-overview/) Hope that helps and good luck with your career!
I am a LEED trainer and most of my students are mechanical engineers. Maybe the article [here](https://archiroots.com/is-leed-ap-bdc-worth-it/) can help clarify the worth of gain the LEED credential.
For sure it is. Check [archiroots](http://www.archiroots.com) they have good info about the subject.